The city of Orlando’s deal to buy Pulse fell through on Monday, when owner Barbara Poma said she could not bring herself to sell the nightclub she founded in memory of her brother.

Clutching her husband’s hand for support, Barbara Poma told reporters during a news conference outside the club that she struggled with the decision.

“This decision truly came just from my heart and my passion for Pulse, and everything it’s meant to me and my family for the last 12 years since its inception,” she said. “So I think the struggle was you know, letting it go, and it’s just something I could not come to grips with.”

Poma’s announcement came about a month after Mayor Buddy Dyer’s staff revealed the city had negotiated a $2.25 million purchase price for the club, a landmark in the gay community where a gunman killed 49 patrons and wounded dozens more on June 12.

The city hoped to build a permanent memorial on the land.

District 4 Commissioner Patty Sheehan, who had urged the city’s purchase of Pulse, expressed disappointment Monday and dismay that some of her colleagues on the City Council had balked at the proposed price.

Red Huber / Orlando Sentinel

Barbara Poma, right, the owner of the Pulse Nightclub is hugged in front of the club Monday, December 5, 2016 after a press conference. Poma said Monday that she does not plan to sell the nightclub to the city of Orlando. In a statement released by her lawyer, Orlando attorney Gus Benitez, Poma said she decided "can't just walk away" from the club, which "means so very much to my family and to our community.

Barbara Poma, right, the owner of the Pulse Nightclub is hugged in front of the club Monday, December 5, 2016 after a press conference. Poma said Monday that she does not plan to sell the nightclub to the city of Orlando. In a statement released by her lawyer, Orlando attorney Gus Benitez, Poma said she decided "can't just walk away" from the club, which "means so very much to my family and to our community.

(Red Huber / Orlando Sentinel)

“I’m distressed by the decision, but I support Barbara’s decision,” Sheehan said.

Poma said she did not yet know what the site will look like in the future.

She has been raising money under a non-profit called the onePULSE Foundation. Though most of the funds raised in 2016 have been promised to the National Compassion Fund, 10 percent will be set aside for a “permanent memorial at the existing site of Pulse Nightclub,” the foundation’s website says.

The City Council had been set to vote Nov. 14 on purchasing the 4,500-square-foot building on a third of an acre at South Orange Avenue and West Esther Street. But Dyer delayed the vote after some commissioners expressed concern about the price.

City staff had appraised the property at $1.65 million, as it existed before the killings. Commissioners Tony Ortiz and Jim Gray objected, with Ortiz telling WFTV-Channel 9 he was “not going to allow for somebody to capitalize on such a tragedy.”

Ortiz didn’t return a call seeking comment Monday. Gray said his opposition didn’t reflect a judgment of Poma’s motives, but rather of the dollars and cents of the transaction.

“She offered a price and I just, from my perspective, wasn’t willing to pay the price that she wanted,” he said.

Sheehan argued the city has paid above appraised value for property before.

“You never want to enter into a real-estate transaction while you insult the seller and I am deeply distressed by some of the things that were being said,” Sheehan said. “Barbara Poma is a victim in this, as well.”

Poma said she made the decision not to sell around Thanksgiving, and the City Council’s public debate about her asking price “didn’t offend me.”

“Everyone’s entitled to their opinion and their feelings but, for me, it wasn’t about the real estate and the appraisal, it was about the emotion, what happened here,” she said.

“We understand that this was an incredibly difficult decision for the owners,” the city’s statement said. “We respect their decision and are hopeful the Pulse site continues to be a place of hope and healing that honors the victims.”

Since the massacre, the club has become a place of mourning for visitors and locals alike. Had the city bought the club, Dyer had proposed leaving it as-is for a time while soliciting community input on what form a permanent memorial there should take.

Dyer’s office said city staff “will continue to research and understand how other communities have approached the memorial process.”

Poma opened the bar in 2004, naming it Pulse in honor of her brother John, who had AIDS and died in 1991. It was often the first gay bar a young person would visit in Orlando.

Terry DeCarlo, executive director of the GLBT Center of Central Florida, said he counseled Poma as she weighed her options, urging her to “go with what’s in your heart.”

“I would not wish what this woman is going through on any person in the world,” he said.

DeCarlo said it’s too soon to say what comes next for Pulse.

“It’s so early,” he said. “I’m sure, within the next few months, things will come out and [Poma], with input from others, people that were there and other organizations, will come up with a plan.”